Saturday saw the first snow of the winter, and Buxton welcomed just a skittering, enough to give a taste of things to come perhaps. The biting cold and light dusting of snowflakes were conditions that Buxton Athletic Club cross country runners become familiar with as the winter season progresses. Twenty four athletes shivered their way around a bleak and exposed course at Stafford Common, with blistering results.
For the ladies, Amy Clarke improved her overall position by a massive 17 places since the first race in the North Staffs League, finishing in a cracking 6th, while returning-to-form Amy Mellor raced home in 23rd. Third for the ladies team was Joanne Cudahy in 70th and fourth Janet Taylor 76th. Other finishers were Sheila Bradley (90th), Caroline Newton-Phillips (100th), Kate Phillips (102nd), Fran Ross (116th), Heather Fryer-Winder (139th), Sarah Soles (150th), Tracy Gregory (159th) and Charlie Narejko (174th). Some 230 runners took part.
In the men’s race, Alasdair Campbell stormed home in 3rd place from a field of well over 300 runners, while Ben Light finished strongly in 14th, Jason Brunnock 27th, Dan Latham 64th, Rick Aldred 73rd and, improving all the time, David Fryer-Winder 91st. Making up the twelve were Jon Sewell (110th), David Soles (127th), Andy Lidstone (131st), Neil Pearsons (144th), Pete Bailey (234th) and Andrew Wearden (281st).
The warm up that both Campbell and Latham had at the cross country clearly stood them in good stead for the 16.5 mile Grin & Bear It fell race the following day, a testing mix of rocky paths and exposed peat fell, and held out of Langsett on the edge of the Peak District. Despite the front runners taking a wrong turn, including Campbell, a finishing time of 2 hours 19 minutes and 6 seconds gave him a very creditable 6th place overall. Latham, smashing a massive 27 minutes from last year’s time, returned a 10th placing in 2.23.35.
Steadily improving her times at a variety of distances is Samantha Willis, and her finishing time of 44.25 at Lancaster’s “Jail Break 10K”, knocking over 3 minutes from her previous best time, is a clear indication of her progress. Willis finished second female, and 34th overall from a field of 232, a great result.
Prolific and international racer Alan Talbot took part in the V Gumarerra 6K night run in Tenerife recently, finishing as 2nd V65 in 30.26, and 112th from a field of 294.
Parkrunners last weekend included a couple of Personal Bests – Matt Hawtin finished the Marple 5k event in 20.22 (11th overall), while Ross Martland completed the Bakewell run in 21.14. Mark Thorogood also took part at Marple, finishing in 23.12, and Justin Holmes ran at Bakewell in 26.53.